In my quest to support the delusion that folks care what I think I've decided to start doing a series of quick and dirty reviews of all the Spelljammer products. I hope these will be useful to newcomers and those without all of the products.
Rating System:
| * | Mediocre, poorly written product with little usefulness. |
| ** | A bad product for several reasons with one or two useful aspects. |
| *** | An average product with some good and some bad points. |
| **** | An above average product with few bad points. |
| ***** | An excellent product with few if any bad points. An essential SJ product. |
The boxed set that started it all. There is, of course, a great deal within that is just excellent and inspirational. But the set gets 4 stars, rather than 5, because of the many rule inconsistencies and contradictions. The set is not quite essential. In fact, I played in the Spelljammer setting for several years without it. But, for all that, it really is a must own, filled with excellent nuggets of Spelljammer flavor.
This product makes an excellent Spelljammer dungeon, and a decent port city. But it is horrible as a description of the reality behind the "legendary" Spelljammer. It is simply not epic enough, and simply feels like a big dungeon. Still, the set has some very net ship designs inside, and great potential for cannibalization.
A very good product. I actually used it for a few years rather than the original boxed set. Technically a war game, it actually isn't very good in that regard, but its filled with new proficiencies, magic items, and lots of Spelljammer lore. It's rare that I don't completely abhor a "Slade" product, but this one passes the grade.
A really well designed setting. It's major flaw is the way the sphere is sealed against outside interference, that feels artificial and unnecessary. It could also use a solid chronology, a redesign of the elven and orc cultures, and a general reorganization. Yet it's coherent, has several extremely innovative human cultures, and does a wonderful job of establishing Spelljamming as the central facet of a sphere-wide civilization. Well worth a purchase.
Fairly typical of the Monstrous Compendium appendices. Good info on neogi, space hamsters, ect. Some entries are too sparse, but it does a pretty decent job. Again, worth a purchase.
This one has some nice monsters that fill holes in the general rules. I particularly like the starfly plant, which explains how elven vessels are "grown". Combined with MC7, this provides a real solid base for plenty of Spelljammer-specific adventures. I'd buy this one before MC7, but both are worth the money.
The subject to all the flaws of the "Complete" series, this book does provide some interesting and needed information (like charts for fighter followers in space). The kits are a tad disappointing, and the proficiencies predictable (and not compatible with those in War captain's Companion) but the racial descriptions are interesting, the side-bars have some useful nuggets, and it also has the only discussion of how Spelljammer relates to campaigns like Dark Sun and Ravenloft. It also describes the various Spelljammer power groups such as the X Pit and the Sindiath Line wonderfully, better than anything found in other products. Very worth the money.
(HackMaster's Spelljammer conversion)
by Adam "Night Druid" Miller, Paul Westermeyer and Rian McMurtry (c)2005As one of the authors, my view of this product is obviously biased. That said, I think it does a good job of reconciling the contradictory rules found in Spelljammer. In addition, it provides a very nice overview of a new sphere, great new races, excellent new magic items and spells, cool proficiencies, and a very cool ship construction system. Plus, if playing 1e or 2e, you can port it over virtually unchanged. I bought a copy myself! ;)
